According to a study made on behalf of the association Allianz-pro-Schiene in Germany, railways are by far the safest transport mode: if we look at injury figures, fatality risk in cars is 67 times greater than trains.
Right across Europe, travelling by train is safer than by car. In Germany, the railways have also retained their top position as the safest transport mode. According to Pro-Rail Alliance calculations, the overall average fatality risk for the period from 2004 to 2010 in Germany was 67 times greater for car passengers that rail travellers. For non-fatal injuries the risk is even higher: per person-kilometre, the probability of being involved in an accident is 100 times greater for every car journey, compared with a journey by train. Although buses are considerably better than cars when it comes to safety, the gap between bus and train is still appreciable: the fatality risk for bus passengers is around five times higher in comparison with trains, and the risk of injury is around 28 times greater. “Trains are by far the safest transport mode,” said the managing director of the German Pro-Rail Alliance, Dirk Flege, at a joint press conference with the auto club ACV in Berlin on Tuesday. The fact eight people were killed in a severe train accident in Hordorf in early 2011 does not affect this trend.
In a long-term comparison of transport mode safety in Europe, Germany’s injury figures are among the lowest for travel accidents involving cars and trains. The EU average is 4.2 car passenger deaths per billion passenger-kilometres, with the figure for Germany 2.9 fatalities. For rail travellers in the EU that figure was 0.2 deaths. The German average for the period between 2005 and 2009 was 0.04 fatalities, which was only beaten by countries in which there were no fatalities, such as in the Netherlands or Sweden. “In no European country is car travel safer than going by train,” said the Pro-Rail Alliance managing director Dirk Flege.
Horst Metzler, general secretary of the auto club ACV, warned against prematurely sounding the all-clear on road transport fatalities simply because figures have been falling for several years. “Over 3,600 deaths on the roads in Germany (in 2010) and almost 35,000 in Europe (in 2009) are no reason to celebrate,” said Metzler. He pointed out that there were more injuries from accidents during the first few months of 2011 in comparison with the previous year, which is the first time numbers have increased since the 1990s.
The ACV general secretary spoke out against the trials of longer and heavier vehicles, which are due to begin in early 2012. “Even now, one in every five accidents involves a heavy goods vehicle. Longer vehicles extend the distance required for overtaking by as much as 44 metres, meaning decisive seconds could be missing in serious situations.” The ACV reckons that the introduction of longer vehicles onto German roads could “massively endanger” the federal government’s own transport safety targets.
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